Versta Research Blog

Versta Research Blog

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Versta Research is a marketing research and public opinion polling firm that helps you answer critical questions with customized research and analytical expertise.

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Versta Research Blog

Explore industry trends, research methods, and tips for your own research projects in the Versta Research Blog. All opinions are our own, and some may change over time.

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The Problem with Fancy Segmentation

The Problem with Fancy Segmentation

Segmenting customers into subsets that have unique needs, interests, and priorities makes a lot of sense. The more obvious the segments are, the more it makes sense, so a priori segments are best. Big companies in one segment, small companies in another. Retirees in one segment, college students in another. You don’t need fancy K-means…

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Get Rid of Those Survey Speeders

Get Rid of Those Survey Speeders

If you found that 10% of your online survey respondents were ignoring your questions, generating random data, and there was an easy way to identify who those respondents were, what would you do? I hope you would delete them, go back to the field, and replace them. But for some reason there are those among…

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Gallup Pays $12M in Phone Survey Lawsuit

Gallup Pays $12M in Phone Survey Lawsuit

Despite the welcome trend towards online polling, telephone surveys are still surprisingly common, and telephone outreach makes sense for certain types of research. But if you ever use or commission phone surveys, take note: do not use automated dialing to make calls. Instead, have interviewers manually dial the numbers so you don’t get caught in…

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Target Your Surveys with Google Stalker

Target Your Surveys with Google Stalker

OK, using the word stalker instead of remarketing lists is harsh, but it perfectly conveys the idea behind Google Consumer Surveys’ (GCS) latest innovation for market research. You can use cookie lists from web pages to target people based on specific content they are viewing. Want to survey people who were on your website last…

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Surveys Stalk You Everywhere

Surveys Stalk You Everywhere

Five years ago there were too many surveys, and today there are WAY too many surveys. They’ve taken over management functions and customer service departments. Have a complaint? Forget calling customer service (and good luck finding them). The best way get your complaint addressed is to give a low survey score, and, pronto, somebody contacts…

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Add a Star to Your Survey

Add a Star to Your Survey

Earlier this year we trumpeted the idea of corporate research groups helping internal business partners do their own research. Sometimes is makes tons of sense, and sometimes not. So when it comes time for something more complicated, how do you educate a client about what matters and what doesn’t in terms of quality and rigor?…

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Make Your Incentive Drawings Legal

Make Your Incentive Drawings Legal

Two things bugged me about the market research survey invitation I got from my alma mater. First, it was a mediocre three star survey that asked me a bunch of information they could easily have gotten from my LinkedIn profile. Second, it offered a chance to win a prize if I participated, and the effort…

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Merging Zip Codes with Census Data

Merging Zip Codes with Census Data

One of the most common and useful units of geographic analysis for our business clients and other types of organizations is zip code. That’s because we typically have residential or business addresses for their customers and prospects, and also because zip codes demarcate relatively small areas, are easy to map, and are familiar to most…

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Try to Untangle This Knot of Numbers

Try to Untangle This Knot of Numbers

Two of my usually-favorite sources for information and insight (AAPOR and the New York Times) came together this week with an embarrassing, face-scrunching example of convoluted statistical reporting: But Internet use correlates inversely with age and voting habits, making [online polling] a more severe problem in predicting elections. While all but 3 percent of those…

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